8:29 AM.
"Josuke, you're up early today."
"I don't have a choice. Does that maid have some kind of occupational disease? She can't stay still for a second. I was woken up by the noise the second the sun hit the horizon."
"Rohan-sensei, we've arrived!"
Rohan Kishibe, who was currently holding on to a confused Hayato Kawajiri, waited as Koichi, Jotaro, Josuke, and Okuyasu finally caught up with him.
"Ah? You've already started acting on your own?" Koichi asked, his eyes wide as he took in the scene.
"Assassin, if you please."
"Understood."
A grey, somber filter instantly descended upon the intersection. Jotaro watched as Amber triggered the time-stop, his mind already beginning to categorize the new arrival.
It seemed that these summoned Servants, with the notable exception of DIO, possessed the ability to stop time for durations measured in [Minutes].
This made them significantly more powerful than both him and DIO, whose limits were still firmly rooted in the realm of [Seconds].
"Mr. Jotaro, you're already capable of moving within stopped time, so I won't waste our magical energy on you."
Rohan glanced at the senior Joestar before extending the freedom of movement to Koichi, Josuke, and Okuyasu.
"Are we really going to hold our meeting within a world of frozen time?"
"What exactly happened here?"
Koichi asked, his voice full of a mix of wonder and anxiety as the power of Amber's reach settled over him.
Josuke set aside his usual lazy demeanor, his expression tightening into something more serious.
"Josuke, is Caster nearby?"
"Yeah, she's around."
"Good. Then I'll give you a brief summary of what just happened. I've already clashed with the enemy Servant."
"And I've confirmed Yoshikage Kira's new identity."
"He is definitely living as Kosaku Kawajiri!"
The news caused a ripple of tension among the group.
"What?! You've already fought with Kira's Servant?!"
"Who are they? What kind of powers do they have?"
Koichi's questions came in a frantic rush. As Stand users, they were intimately aware of how critical information was in a supernatural battle.
Information was the true currency of war.
If they rushed into a fight without knowing the enemy's capabilities, it could lead to catastrophic and irreversible losses.
"I can't say for certain what his primary ability is... because if not for Assassin's intervention, none of you would be seeing me alive right now."
Recalling the sensation of his own death, Rohan felt a shudder of pure, primal terror run through him.
No matter how hard he had screamed, neither his Servant nor his Stand had responded.
Combined with the eerie, absolute silence of the street, it had felt like being trapped within the celluloid of a horror movie.
And then, while he was in that paralyzed state, [Killer Queen] had manifested and blown him to atoms.
He still didn't understand the mechanics of the attack.
According to Amber, he had simply started muttering that "Kosaku Kawajiri is Yoshikage Kira" and then he had spontaneously detonated.
His explanation left the others in a state of profound confusion.
"So a temporal rewind really did happen? Rohan-sensei, you actually died once?"
"I didn't feel anything at all. No a single ripple."
Koichi and Okuyasu were both stunned. One was reeling from the news of Rohan's brush with death, while the other was simply trying to grasp the concept of time being reset without his knowledge.
'Unable to get a response from a Servant or a Stand... it sounds like he was completely disconnected from the world.'
'Was it a separate dimension? But Amber said Rohan never actually left his physical position.'
'And the boy was moving like a mindless puppet, following a pre programmed script.'
Jotaro listened to every detail, his mind already beginning to connect the dots.
He had identified several key factors.
First, Yoshikage Kira's Servant possessed some form of mind control. They could manipulate a person so thoroughly that they would continue to live their daily lives with their original personalities intact while under the Servant's thumb.
Second, the victims were entirely unaware of the manipulation. Even when they were in lethal danger, they couldn't break free of the influence.
Third, the trigger for the ability was still a mystery, though it might be linked to the "Red Eyes" Rohan had mentioned.
Hayato Kawajiri's own records had mentioned that once he saw those eyes, his memory became a complete blank.
And Rohan himself admitted to making direct eye contact with the intruder.
According to Rohan, those eyes were so distinctive and otherworldly that it was nearly impossible not to focus on them.
'Is it a dream-manifestation ability similar to [Death Thirteen]?'
Jotaro recalled an old enemy he and Kakyoin had faced years ago. That Stand was exceptionally dangerous. It killed people within their dreams, and unless the victim had summoned their Stand in the real world before falling asleep, they were defenseless in the dreamscape.
The situation Rohan described was strikingly similar.
"And why was [Killer Queen] with that Servant?"
"What is the Servant's class?"
Josuke asked, his voice full of a mixture of confusion and frustration as he adjusted his school bag.
"I still don't know. It's hard to judge by appearance alone. I didn't see any obvious telltale signs of a specific class."
"Hayato's memory mentioned the word [Saber], but the man wasn't carrying a single blade or weapon. There's a high degree of doubt regarding that classification."
Even though Rohan and Josuke didn't exactly get along, the artist wasn't about to let their petty grievances interfere with a life-or-death situation.
"Until we have a better grasp of the enemy's abilities, I suggest we avoid operating alone."
"It would be too easy for them to pick us off one by one."
Jotaro's warning was directed at everyone. He was genuinely worried that one of them would lose their temper and charge blindly into a trap.
While Amber's time-reversal was a powerful safety net, it wasn't a guarantee of victory.
Especially since the enemy seemed capable of perceiving the temporal shifts.
"Sakuya... Caster. Can you perform a temporal rewind as well?"
Josuke turned to the empty air and asked his question.
'My ability to reverse time is limited to returning objects to their previous physical states. Rewinding the entire world is beyond me.'
"I see. That's going to make things difficult."
"And you don't have any memory of what happened before the rewind, do you?"
'...'
The silence was Sakuya's answer.
While her mastery over the flow of time was profound, she lacked Amber's ability to pull the entire world back to a previous chronological node to change the "Future."
Even when the world was reset, she remained unaware of the erased timeline.
"In that case, it wouldn't be wise to go directly to Kira's house today."
"If we all get caught in that unknown ability at once, the war will be over before it even begins."
"Is that guy really that strong?"
"You moron, Okuyasu! This isn't the kind of fight we can win with a direct frontal assault."
As they argued, Rohan fell into a deep silence for a moment before a sudden idea occurred to him.
"Wait... everyone, come here for a second."
"Hmm?"
"When I used [Heaven's Door] on Hayato earlier, he regained his true consciousness. That proves my ability works against their control."
"So, as a precaution, I'm going to write a specific command into all of you!"
The small, hatted figure of his Stand hovered behind him, a look of grim determination on its face.
"Whoa!"
"What are you going to write?"
They watched as their own limbs began to flutter like the pages of a book. Rohan's pen moved with a frantic, artistic energy as he inscribed the legend.
[My consciousness, my five senses, my spirit, my thoughts, and my body will remain unaffected by any outside interference. I will maintain absolute clarity at all times.]
He even wrote the "setting" into Jotaro.
He didn't know the exact mechanism the enemy used to manipulate people, but he could simply "Ban" the possibility of his friends falling under their influence.
No matter what form the control took, it eventually had to interface with a person's spirit, mind, or physical form.
By immunizing them against such interference, he was effectively stripping the enemy of their primary weapon.
"Honestly... this is such a pain. Not having a time-stop ally is really slowing me down."
Subaru Natsuki watched the grey, silent world of the frozen city and let out a tired sigh. He decided to take a quick scout of the area.
"Hmm?"
"Wait... that guy."
As he walked through a quiet shopping district, he caught sight of a strange figure.
Spiky white hair. A face that looked like it belonged to a seasoned predator. A high-tech cane.
"I feel like I've seen him somewhere before..."
The impression was faint, but Subaru was sure he had encountered this person in another life.
"Wait... that's Accelerator!"
"The guy who controls vectors!"
The realization hit him like a lightning bolt. It was no wonder he felt a sense of familiarity; he had read the light novels in his old world.
A character from A Certain Magical Index.
Unlike the JoJo series, which he had only partially finished, he knew Accelerator's story inside and out.
"So he's a Servant..."
"If that's the case, our current Kid Goku doesn't stand a chance against him."
"Where is his Master?"
Subaru looked around, but he couldn't spot anyone who looked like they should be following a monster like Accelerator.
"Yeah... picking a fight with him now would be a disaster."
Without any further information, Subaru decided to beat a hasty retreat. He didn't have the "Imagine Breaker" or the suicidal confidence of a certain protagonist to go and chat with the Level 5 Esper.
"Speaking of which... who the hell keeps stopping time?"
"Is it ever going to stop for more than five minutes this morning?"
He was beyond annoyed with his current situation. Even if he wanted Goku to go out and fight, this constant "Start and Stop" made tactical coordination nearly impossible.
"Time-based abilities are such a massive pain in the ass!"
"It wasn't that maid's doing. So there really is another enemy who can stop time."
Homura Akemi looked at the frozen scenery outside the window and noted the subtle differences in the temporal aura.
"But I still can't tell what this arrow is made of."
Picking up the mysterious [Arrow] she had literally snatched away from the air just moments ago, Homura examined it from every angle. She couldn't sense any obvious magical signature.
That ghost-old-man in the photo had been shouting about how a scratch from this thing would grant "Stand" powers, but she remained deeply skeptical of the claim.
In that exact moment, the time-stop was released.
"Wait! The arrow! It's gone!!"
Yoshihiro Kira felt the weight leave his grasp and let out a scream of shock.
He looked around frantically and saw the artifact now held in Homura's hand.
"Give it back! Give it back now!"
Driven by a desperate need to secure the weapon for his son, Yoshihiro threw himself toward her.
BANG!
A small explosion erupted in the air. The photograph fluttered to the ground, reduced to a pile of grey ash.
Why had he suddenly exploded?
Until the very moment of his second death, Yoshihiro Kira had no idea what had happened to him.
"Archer, did you use the time-stop?" Miyu asked, her voice trembling slightly as she watched the remnants of the explosion fade away.
"I tried. It lasted exactly one second before that maid canceled it."
"It's like we're fighting over the remote to a television..."
Homura ran a hand through her long, dark hair and tossed the [Arrow] onto a nearby chair with a look of pure irritation.
"Why did you kill that old man?"
"Because he clearly wasn't a normal human."
"A man who uses promises of power to manipulate others into killing for his son isn't someone who deserves to continue existing."
As she turned to sit down across from Miyu, something shifted.
The [Arrow], which had been lying perfectly still on the chair, suddenly leaped into the air as if it had been waiting for its moment.
It lunged directly toward Miyu's shoulder.
"!"
Reacting with instinctive speed, Homura triggered her time-stop.
"Damn it!"
She reached out to snatch the artifact from the air, but her influence was shattered the moment she touched it. Sakuya had intervened again.
The [Arrow] tore through the remaining distance and pierced deep into Miyu's left shoulder.
"Ugh!"
The sharp, stabbing pain caused Miyu to cry out in shock and pain.
"No!"
Shocked that the weapon could move on its own, Homura rushed over and grabbed the end of the shaft, trying to pull it free.
If she could only use her time-stop without being interrupted, she could have solved this in a heartbeat.
It was beyond frustrating.
The [Arrow] showed no sign of coming out. If anything, it seemed to be burrowing deeper into Miyu's flesh. The skin of her shoulder began to bulge and ripple as the foreign object sank into her body.
'What should I do? If time-stop is being blocked... should I use a rewind?'
In that critical moment, Homura's mind raced through every possible solution to save Miyu.
If that maid hadn't been meddling, they would never have ended up in this situation.
'But if I use that power... I don't know how far back the world will jump.'
If her past experiences were any indication, a full temporal reset would hurl her back an entire month.
But in this world, that rule seemed distorted.
The most likely outcome would be returning to the moment Miyu had first summoned her.
'The arrow will grant her the power of a Stand. In exchange, you will help me kill Jotaro Kujo and the others.'
Recalling the old man's earlier words, Homura felt a surge of hesitation.
If Miyu truly did awaken a "Stand," it would mean they had a second source of power.
From a tactical perspective, it was a desirable outcome.
"!"
But seeing the artifact disappearing into Miyu's body made her heart ache with worry.
"It's... it's okay, Archer."
"If things... go wrong... you can just... use it then."
Miyu gasped out the words, her voice tight with pain and fear. She could see the hesitation in Homura's eyes.
Remembering the "Despair" and the hundreds of failed loops Homura had lived through just to save a single person, Miyu wanted to be the one to help her.
This war... it wasn't just for Miyu's sake anymore. It was for Homura's, too.
She wanted to be strong enough to share the burden.
"Miyu..."
Homura stared at her for a heartbeat, seeing the resolve in the young girl's eyes.
She let go of the [Arrow].
The artifact instantly vanished into Miyu's body.
"I see. So [Bites the Dust] was triggered, but instead of an hour, the world only jumped back a few minutes."
Yoshikage Kira sat in his office, listening to Itachi's report with a cold, analytical focus.
Something had gone wrong.
The power of [Bites the Dust] was supposed to be invincible. There was no reason for it to fail.
And yet, time had not reset to the appropriate node.
"And Rohan Kishibe did not die according to the laws of fate. This proves that the trigger was ultimately unsuccessful."
"Yet, time did move backward for a short period."
"Does his Servant possess a power similar to my own?"
Combining the facts, he and Itachi analyzed the situation.
Yoshikage felt a flicker of anxiety for a few seconds, but he quickly forced it down.
"Fine. Whatever. Even if they have such a power... I will not be the one who dies."
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]